WFUWaldo
Steve Lepore
Pathetic last few weeks. Sickening to watch this much wasted talent.
First and foremost, congratulations to the Cardinals and the Brewers for securing an opportunity to play in the post season. They represent the Central Division of the National League and I wish both teams success. They are better teams than the Cubs this year.
I just finished reading the brief initial reactions of some players, Maddon and Epstein. All are disappointed, frustrated and somewhat mystified by this years performance. The most glaring problem was never mentioned. The team fielding percentage of .981 was the lowest number since 2011. The team defensive efficiency ratio of .688 was the lowest since 2014. The previous four years the Cubs had a DER of .695 (2015), .731 (2016), .700 (2017) and .702 (2018). Defense is not the only problem, but it is certainly a primary problem.
There isn't a lot that needs to be corrected for Cubs to contend next year. Fixing defense is tough, but keeping Castellanos would lead to a worse OF defense - which is why I'm seeing a lot of articles saying they arent going to go after him, which stinks. Rizzo and Baez are solid defenders, Nico is my guess for starting 2B next year, should be ok. Bryant is getting worse at third, but we dont have room for an upgrade there unless we move him to Center or Right.
Gonna be interesting to see what happens- Cubs should have $30 or so million to spend and will have to get creative with two years of Lester left. Need 1-2 more starters and a full on overhaul of our pen.
Send the farm for Whit Merrifield
Sign Castellanos
Sign Gerrit Cole
Sign Will Smith
Go 162-0 with $300MM payroll
Heyward under contract through 2023. Ugh. 8 year, $164M deal. Not Theo's best work, needless to say...
https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/chicago-cubs/jason-heyward-7231/